Haptic usually refers to a sense of touch provided to a user as a feedback force or vibration on a user interface of an electronic device. The feedback force can provide information to the user. With technological advancement, user interfaces are now integrated with haptic interfaces that provide haptic feedback. Mobile devices, gaming devices, and automobiles are now integrated with haptics to provide a better user experience. An important element of providing user feedback is the processing of the audio signal to convert the audio signal into a haptic response. The haptic response drives an actuator to provide vibration in response to a touch on a user interface. Another application of haptics is to provide real time experience to a user by inducing vibration in the human body along with audio. This application is widely used in headsets, headphones, wearable straps, and other devices. All these applications require processing of the audio signal to extract a haptic response from the audio signal in real time. The user experience in haptics is widely influenced by the haptic processing system that converts the input audio data to generate a haptic response. User experience is usually controlled by the ability of the haptic processing system to process and generate a good haptic effect.
Several technologies provide different implementations to provide haptic output from the input audio signal, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,979,146 provides a system and method for automatically converting the received audio signal into haptic events by separating the audio signal into a number of sub-bands and segments. The sub-band signal is then converted into a number of events. The system assigns haptic events to specific sub-bands that generate a haptic response in an actuator. The system provides different parameters related to frequency characteristics, actuator parameters, and minimum time separation for generating a haptic response.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 8,378,964 extends the technology. It provides a structured representation of haptic events. The method calculates the event score for different channels and, based on cumulative score, assigns haptic events to specific channels to generate a haptic response in an associated actuator.
US Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0189748 provides a method and an associated device for processing an audio signal and/or a video signal to generate haptic excitation. A haptic excitation generating unit generates haptic excitation on specific body parts of the user by generating airflow through a vent. Accordingly, the haptic excitation is conveyed to the user body.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,717,152 describes a haptic effect conversion system using a waveform. Audio frames from an audio source are intercepted by the haptic conversion system to generate a haptic signal, which is passed on through an actuator to produce haptic effects. The haptic signal is based on a maximum value of each audio data frame, which defines a magnitude of the haptic signal.
The current state of technology provides different techniques to process audio signals to generate a haptic signal that can be passed on to the actuator to generate a haptic effect. However, no state-of-the-art technology provides additional analytics and processing to amplify suppressed frequencies, handling of transients, dynamic updating of parameters in different dynamic processors for creating a haptic signal that enhances the user experience.
The present invention uses several techniques to enhance the haptic experience of the user by using each digital audio data sample, utilizing side-chaining, resonance and physical modules, utilising the average value of amplitude and other associated modules to provide an improved and continuous haptic experience. Another problem associated with present haptic conversion system is the lack of haptic response in the absence of adequate low frequencies. If the audio signal has a stream of high frequency components, most of the high frequencies are attenuated during filtering of the audio signal, thereby producing no haptic response. In addition, certain low frequency components, although present, might be eliminated during the filtering and the processing stages. This results in deprecated user experience. Ideally, the haptic processing system should provide a real time haptic effect in order to provide an enhanced user experience with an audio-tactile effect. A rich user experience can be provided if the audio signal is processed in real time with minimum delay, each audio signal data sampled is processed and analysed, and low-frequencies are amplified and/or appended to produce a haptic effect.
Accordingly, the technology in the present invention provides methods and systems of efficiently and effectively processing audio signals to produce haptic output by using one or more dynamic processors, physical resonance modules, and mixers for digital signal processing. An analytics module simultaneously monitors and controls the haptic output for enhanced user experience.